1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for keeping the content of a pipe at required temperature by attaching to the pipe hollow prefabricated elements, through which flows a medium, having temperature at which the content of the pipe should be kept. In accordance with the present invention by thermal maintenance here is meant insulating and/or heating and/or cooling of the content of industrial plant pipes through which process fluids are flowing. Among the fluids could be gases, vapors, suspensions or slurries etc. that have inherent temperature characteristics, which allow them to freeze, become viscous or condense at normal ambient temperature and therefore special thermal maintenance measures should be taken in order to prevent those undesirable phenomena.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are known various measures, used in industry for thermal maintenance of pipes as required for the storage and transfer of fluids through piping and equipment. Comprehensive survey of those measures used for heating and referred to as steam tracing can be found for example on the Internet.
For steam tracing usually jacketed tracing systems are employed, which in fact are extended versions of the known double pipe heat exchangers. It should be mentioned however that not only steam is used in jacketed systems as a heating medium, but also other fluids. A typical example of jacketed piping system can be found in monograph Chemical Engineering, June 1993, by McGraw-Hill Inc. Furthermore instead of passing fluid medium the content of the jacket can be filled by insulating material, e.g. as it is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,715. An example of such jacketed system is Wehotec(copyright) industrial pipes manufactured by KWH Tech. Ltd.
There exist many disadvantages associated with the jacketed tracing systems in general and with those intended for steam tracing in particular. Among the disadvantages are:
Danger of penetration of the heating medium through pipe wall followed by interaction with the pipe content. The interaction in some cases may be accompanied by explosion. It should be mentioned that the penetration through the pipe wall cannot be detected and thus prevented.
Complicate and expensive installation and maintenance of the whole jacket system, since during the installation many complicate welding operations should be carried out and therefore extensive labor is required.
Some piping systems cannot be jacketed e.g. if the pipes are coated by a glass coating since jacket cannot be welded to such pipes.
The installation step may be associated with deterioration or damage of the process pipe and therefore with the necessity to perform additional operations for correcting the damage.
The installation of the jacket tracing system should be carried out always simultaneously with the installation of the pipe itself. Thus the construction schedule becomes less flexible.
The already installed jacket system cannot be recycled.
There exist also other means for thermal maintenance of the content of industrial pipes. Among these means one can mention co-called electrical tracing, employing attaching of electrically conductive elements to the outside surface of the pipe wall. Unfortunately electrical tracing is suitable only for heating. Furthermore this measure is associated with the necessity in compulsory grounding and explosion protection, which makes this measure not always feasible, expensive and very prone to mechanical damage.
There is known also insulating and/or heating and/or cooling system as disclosed in EP764810. This system comprises independent, prefabricated modular elements configured as a duplex pipe, forming a jacket. This system is used for the insulating of small and medium size diameter piping systems. The fluid medium heats or cools the process fluid in single or multiple sequences by flowing through the jacket.
The drawback of this solution is associated with the complexity of design of the modular elements. The elements are configured as pipe and plate, provided at one end of its external surface with longitudinal channel sections apt to lodge a structural shape for articulated joining of two adjacent elements to form an assembly of modular elements enveloping the equipment to be insulated. The cross-sectional configuration of the elements is provided with sharp and not rounded edges and therefore is not suitable for keeping considerable pressure of the fluid medium flowing through the jacket.
Furthermore the elements are designed in such a manner that they are jointed by virtue of male and female mating sections, formed on the elements. These mating sections require precise manufacturing, and this contributes to the high cost of the whole manufacturing process.
The closest to the present invention thermal maintenance solution is so-called ControTrace Bolt-On technology developed by CSI Ltd.
According to this technology prefabricated hollow elements are attached to the outside surface of the pipe. Heating fluid is passed through the elements and thus temperature maintenance of the pipe""s content is provided by virtue of conductivity. The elements are secured on the pipe by banding or bolting. The cross-section configuration of the hollow elements allows close match between the pipe""s circumference and the element. This is achieved by virtue of arched configuration of that surface of the hollow element, which is adjacent to the pipe""s wall. The opposite side of the hollow element is straight. One can find description of the ControTrace heating elements in CSI Bulletin F-40.
The ControTrace elements have many advantages. They are fast and easy in installation, they have high thermal capacity, they allow rapid heat transfer and they are removable and reusable. Nevertheless they have one intrinsic disadvantage associated with their size and design.
The elements are fabricated of carbon steel tubing with a concave heating surface formed to the radius of the outer diameter of the process pipe. The elements are deliberately designed that the arc length of contact between each element and the process pipe is 1.8 inches regardless the pipe size. By virtue of this ultimate design the coverage of the pipe diminishes as the pipe diameter increases. For example for the pipe diameter 2 inch the pipe coverage per element is 24%, while for the pipe diameter 16 inch the coverage is only 3.6%. Therefore the ControTrace heating elements allow coverage of not more than approximately 25% of the pipe""s circumference even for pipes with small diameter. If the pipe has sufficiently larger diameter several hollow elements would be required to provide efficient thermal maintenance. It can be readily appreciated that this renders this solution expensive.
It should be also born in mind that during the installation procedure it is required to place between the element and the pipe special thermal cement, which ensures adhesion of the element before it is banded to pipe. This procedure renders the system complicate and less convenient in exploitation.
In conclusion it should be emphasized that despite the fact that numerous solutions have been devised for thermal maintenance of industrial pipes there is still felt a need for a new and improved solution, which is simple, inexpensive, convenient in manufacturing and exploitation and ensures efficient, reliable, easy and safe thermal maintenance.
The object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved means for thermal maintenance of industrial pipes enabling sufficiently reduce or overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the known in the art solutions.
In particular the main object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved thermal maintenance means, which comprises prefabricated hollow element defined by very simple configuration and therefore is inexpensive in fabrication and exploitation and at the same time ensure efficient thermal maintenance.
The further object of the present invention is to provide new and versatile thermal maintenance means, which is reliable in operation and suits to wide assortments of pipes irrespective of their diameter and material.
The third object of the present invention is to provide a new and safe thermal maintenance means, which is suitable to keep high pressure of working fluid medium passing therethrough.
Still further object of the invention is to provide new and improved prefabricated elements suitable for thermal maintenance of industrial pipes, allowing simple installation and dismantling without skilled labor.
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention can be achieved in accordance with the following combination of its essential features.
A means for thermal maintenance of industrial pipe by virtue of a working fluid medium passing through at least one prefabricated hollow element attachable to the outside surface of the pipe wall. The hollow element comprises outer cover defined by
a) an inner portion, facing the outside surface of the pipe wall,
b) an outer portion, situated opposite the inner portion and facing outwardly
c) a transition portions, connecting the inner portion with the outside portion.
The inner portion of the cover is provided with substantially semicircular concave configuration defined by radius R1, corresponding to the curvature of the pipe.
The inner portion encloses about 180 degrees of the pipe circumference. The transition portions are rounded by a radius r, which is less than radius R1. In one of the embodiments the outer cover is provided with inlet and outlet openings for entrance and exit of the working medium.
In still further embodiment the outer portion of the cover is provided with semicircular configuration defined by radius R2, wherein R1 less than R2.
In yet another embodiment radius R1 is less than 500 mm, radius R2 is less than 550 mm and radius r is less than 100 mm.
As per additional embodiment the inner portion of the cover encloses less than 180 degrees of the pipe circumference.
And in accordance with still further embodiment the inner portion of the cover encloses more than 180 degrees of the pipe circumference. The present invention in its various embodiments has only been summarized briefly.
For better understanding of the present invention as well of its advantages, reference will now be made to the following description of its embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.